“The rate of their use in the healthcare industry is only around 5 per cent”

— Photo: K. Pichumani

WARM GREETING: Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy in conversation with M. Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman, FICCI, Tamil Nadu State Council (right), at a panel discussion in Chennai on Thursday. Ar.Rm. Arun, convenor, FICCI, TNSC, is also in the picture.

CHENNAI: The power of information technology must be harnessed in the healthcare industry for the benefit of patients, Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy said on Thursday.

At present, the rate of use of IT tools in the healthcare industry is only around 5 per cent, far behind even shopping centres or fast-food restaurants, he said. Healthcare providers continue to pore over volumes of paperwork even today when the facility of Electronic Medical Records is available. Telemedicine, another IT tool, will help to improve patient care dramatically, he said.

At present, the major constraint is the financial viability of e-healthcare initiatives; only isolated projects have taken off.

The key to making the projects financially viable also lies in pooling resources by various facilities within a geographic locality and sharing the benefits and revenues thus created, Mr. Tripathy said at a panel discussion on IT in health care organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

In Tamil Nadu, the government intended digitising all patient records in State-run hospitals and allotted Rs. 5 crore to Tata Consultancy Services for this purpose. The system would eventually operate in 26 district headquarters hospitals, 162 taluk and 77 non-taluk hospitals, and some of the primary healthcare centres.

M. Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman, FICCI–Tamil Nadu State Council, said the event, initiated by the IT and Communications Panel, had led to the formation of an exclusive healthcare panel for the FICCI Tamil Nadu. The panel would be headed by GSK Velu, managing director, Metropolis Health Services. Ar.Rm. Arun, convenor of the IT and Communications Panel, provided a background to the need for IT in healthcare and the advantages that would accrue from it.

Representatives of the IT industry and leading healthcare practitioners spoke about integrating IT with health management, highlighting the role of IT in diabetes healthcare and research, robotics, tele-health and diagnostic medicine.